Greetings and salutations!

Today I’m going to talk about some of my favorite book to movie adaptations – just like it says on the tin. I love books and I love movies, and when the two come together, it touches a chord in me that cannot be duplicated. I won’t tarry on a long-winded introduction: let’s get to the meat of the post, shall we?

What makes a book to movie adaptation terrific? If the movie captures the essence of the book, the characters and offers the same or improved ending from the book. Mind you, a terrific adaptation doesn’t necessarily mean the movie sticks as close to the book as white on rice, nor does it mean the movie leaves you with a terrific feeling. It just means that as a reader of the book, you’re satisfied with the spirit of the movie.

Here, in no particular order, are my top ten terrific movie adaptations.

We Need to Talk about Kevin – Tilda Swinton can make anything good. If you haven’t read the book yet, watching the movie gives you a taste of the awful foreboding of the book. You know something is going to happen, the question is just. when. This movie will not make you comfortable.

Jurassic Park – Now this movie was a bundle of fun for me. Yes, the book was a lot more techincal and dense to get through, but the screen writers managed to sprinkle in the genetics along side the breathtaking spectacle of the dinosaurs on scree. An excellent film that I watch every time it comes on television.

The Godfather – The book was good, but it did include a few side stories that detracted from the main narrative. The movie slashed and burned enough of those side stories and emphasized the family saga. It helped that the author, Mario Puzo, had a hand in writing the screenplay.

The Silence of the Lambs – What more can be said? The movie made me read the book, and I wasn’t disappointed.

To Kill a Mockingbird – The actors (Robert Duvall’s first screen role as Boo Radley), made the book come alive. The only person I missed in the movie was Calpurnia. Her part in the book seemed to be larger and wittier.

No Country for Old Men – The Coen Brothers helped bring Cormac McCarthy’s story to life. Both movie and book complement each other.

The Remains of the Day – I went to see this in the movies and I did have tears. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson really bring Kazou Ishiguro’s story to life.

Wiseguy – I never met a gangster movie I didn’t like. Re-titled “Goodfellas”, the movie actually improves on the newspaper style reporting of the book and brings the characters to life in blooming color.

The Shining – While I did not care for the character death in movie, I really felt that Kubrick’s adaptation captured the essence (yes, that word again) of the book and the frightening visuals and hidden clues are quite effective.

Requiem for a Dream – This is a film that I never wish to see ever again. A gut-wrenching odyssey of three separate stories of drug addiction, Requiem for a Dream is a visceral experience that leaves the viewer stunned. The book is a little more “in your face” than the movie is, but both are effective.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption – Renamed as The Shawshank Redemption….well, I’m pretty sure that you’ve all heard of the movie, yes?

Into the Wild – Written by Jon Jon Krakauer, who freaked me out with Into Thin Air, about folks climbing Mt. Everest, Into the Wild is the story of a young man who wanted to live off the land in the wilds of Alaska.

Hey! It’s Music Monday!

There’s nothing I like better on a cold winter’s evening (and sometimes in the summer too) is a cup of Irish coffee and some dark classical music. Whether it be a mournful aria or a draggy dirge in a lovely minor key, the dulcet tones of a sorrowful violin or the lamenting mezzo-sorprano.

I thrive on that shit.

Forget about the dog dying in movies or some drama on television. Youwant to bring a tear to my eye, play me a tune in a minor key. Those gloomy chord progressions will get me every single time.

Here we go.

Dido’s Lament – Dido and Aeneas, Henry Purcell

In operas, someone always dies. Here, it’s Dido. She’s taken poison because her great love, Aeneas, has abandoned her. Grab the tissue and take a look at her first lines: (Belinda is her lady in waiting)

“Take everything you think you know about country music and throw it out the window. That pop rock crap y’all call country is nothing compared to what Rachel Brooke is laying down. She’s an old soul in the way Hank Williams and Memphis Minnie were, culling together both country and country blues into an album that is easily digestible for anyone who gets scared off by real country music. Etta James once said that the blues and country music were kissing cousins. Rachel Brooke is their love child.” -Chip McCabe

and

“Producing and playing most of the instruments herself, Rachel demonstrates her immense talent and diversity on this album. (Down in the Barnyard 2011) The song writing is top notch, her voice is eerily old-time-authentic, and the whole album has the ability to whisk you away on the country technicolor lullaby head trip that she has painted during it’s near-hour long set. Rachel is just hitting her stride, but with this release is proving that we should all be keeping our eyes on her.” –Shooter Jennings, ”- Moonrunners”

Note: This is a quick slapdash, done on the fly. It most definitely contains errors, which will be fixed in the future. Thanks, though, for reading!

The episode opens with some men in Wall Street clothes, fighting in an office where the lights are flickering. It’s pretty brutal and they are beating the crap out of each other using office supplies. The w

inner hacks the loser with the blade from a paper cutter, the likes of which I haven’t seen in ages.

Body on the docks. Nygma has all the answers and pulls a thumb out of the dead man’s mouth. Eck.

Penguin stops some rich broad on the street and says she has a very nice brooch, and asks for it. Yeah. Next scene he’s giving the brooch to Fish and they seem to be playing nice with each other, but we know that’s a sham.

Fish uses the pin from the brooch to stab Penguin in the hand and licks the blood off the end. Go, FISH! She also tells Penguin that he’d

Penguin blood is sweeeeeet

better hope that Falcone keeps in good health.

Finally, Bruce going to school. He couldn’t stay in that house forever. I can’t see Alfred being a huge advocate of hiding away and homeschooling.

At a loss to do with the brooch, Penguin gives it to his mother. She opens her arms and pushes her chest out, saying “Pin in on!” We are saved from another creepy moment when she exclaims over his injury. After hearing the story, she says she, too was bullied by a girl in school and ended up reporting her and her family to the Secret Police. Mama Penguin is gangsta!

Gordon and Bullock at a black market doctor who has apparently treated these Gordon Gekko Fight Club folks. Gordon arrests him because of the link between the doctor and the dead body. Cops don’t like that, but Gordon is playing hardball.

Sigh. Gordon goes home. Drunk Barbara waiting for him with gun drawn. She’s still scared of Zsasz, blah blah. Guess she’s not scared of a little vodka tho. Eh, I have tried with Barbara. I don’t like her character.

So Ed Nygma is also the Medical Examiner, like Quincy, and he also likes cranberry muffins. And he tells himself jokes. This is the most ill-lit forensic examining lab that I’ve ever seen. Dr. G would be so put out. Whoops NOPE! He gets chased away by the real medical examiner. Pretty funny.

Back to Bruce at school. Two boys sit down with him. As a teacher, I smell a bullying scene coming up. Yep. And the main bully’s haircut is terrible.

Fish and that girl who is dating Falcone is reporting to Fish in a confessional. This girl, who’s name I can’t even remember, is rather boring. Oh, thanks Fish, it’s Liza. Liza is supposed to copy something from Falcone’s journal. Liza asks what would happen if one of his men catches her, and Fish is like…well, then you’re dead. Ha!

Bullock and Gordon show up at a busy office where the employees are looking kinda beat up. The man who is the head of the firm seems to be familiar to me, I recognize the voice. Gordon and Bullock go into the good cop/bad cop act (with Gordon as the bad cop, lol)

and main dude is acting pretty shady. They talk about mask. “A mask speaks truth.” And he is become weirder and weirder by the second.

Nygma gets a clue

They leave the office and there is blood on the floor leading to the restroom. Oh, look, it’s a man with a bloody nose. Whoops. But wait! A dude comes out of the restroom with a bloody bandage on a hand. He hits Gordon and leaves. Bullock comes in and tells him “You should have waited for me.”

Back at Bruce’s school. Here it comes, the bullying escalates. Bruce isn’t intimidated, but when it’s three against one, those are tough odds. Bully starts to talk about his mother and Bruce bats him across the face. Good for him.

Back to Penguin. Uh oh, he’s eating an apple and a knife. This isn’t looking good. Timothy, one of Fish Mooney’s men, is brought in and Penguin has him beat up.

Gordon and Bullock interrogate no-thumb guy. Bullock reports out that the three top candidates for some job had to fight it out, but not to the death. Blah Blah. Here comes Nygma, thank god, to offer some color to the scene. Apparently, it wasn’t black in, it was printer toner. Turns out four bodies were found having been killed with office supplies. What? No thumb dude has lawyered up before he could sign a confession.

They briefly discuss how the death of the Waynes sparked the evil that is coming up from the bowels of Gotham.

And Bruce comes out all beat up and Alfred is like what’s going on. Bruce says “Don’t tell the school.” Alfred is like “Not bloody likely.” Which means those bullies better watch out!

Bullock and Gordon have a bit of a falling out and guess who’s on the phone. Barbara, wanting to check it. Gordon is like “I’m busy” and hangs up.

Liza, spills some of the knock out syrup she is supposed to pour in Falcone’s tea.

Gordon, along in the crazy office place from the opening, finds men in cages, but he’s tasered from behind by Crazy Head Office guy.

A peek at Cat-tween, coming out of the basement of some shop that she stole from.

Alfred gives Bruce his father’s watch. Bruce goes to the home of the bully and punches him in the face right on the sidewalk. Ha! Alfred says “Point well made”. Then Alfred does the clean up.

Back to where Gordon is knocked out. Wake up Gordon, it’s time to fight to the death. It’s like Wall Street meets Fight Club with a well-heeled audience.

Bullock is asking for help in the police station, no one wants to help. Bullock is like “eff this, Gordon is a cop, you better help him, he might be in trouble.” Cops start to step up.

Back to the fight. Gordon kicks the people’s butts, of course. Mask guy taunts Gordon “Where are your policeman friends? Did they abandon you?” Gordon says “I don’t need them.” Mask guy fights Gordon with his sword, but Gordon gets the better of him. Long pause with Gordon holding the sword over Crazy Office Guy. We all know he’s not gonna stab him. Just then the DA comes in and wraps up.

Fierceness Squared

Fish listening to another singer, an old woman. Liza wants out. She asks Fish Mooney if it’s worth it, what’s she’s doing. Fish gives her a little back story. She grew up in poverty and her mother was a prostitute. She used to sleep behind a curtain when her mother entertained men. One of Falcone’s men killed her mother because he “didin’t like th eservise” and she was there. It’s not about revenge, it’s about power. Fish promises Liza that she won’t let anything happen to her.

Poor Timothy. Hung upside down. He finally gives up that Fish has someone close to Falcone to Oswald.

Bullock and Gordon make up. Gordon gives another rally the troops speech about how he’s not going to give up until the city is clean.

Say what? Fish’s mother isn’t dead? Ha! Gotta love Fish.

Oh, look Barbara has left again. Honestly? Who cares.

Cat-tween asks to see Gordon. I hope this goes somewhere.

Bruce admits he enjoyed punching the crap out of the bully. He also admits that he’s angry all the time. Is this teen Hulk? He asks Alfred to teach him how to fight.

Although the Loving case was a historic civil rights decision as it struck down laws banning interracial marriage, there have been many, varied interracial marriages throughout history.

Joseph Laroche and family.

Joseph Laroche, 26, a Haitian-born, French-educated engineer who was moving back to Haiti because he could not find work in his profession in France because of racial prejudice. The family was meant to travel via first-class on the French ocean liner France. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Laroches discovered that the ship wouldn’t allow them to dine with their children. They traded their first class tickets for second class tickets about the Titanic.

Due to the protocol of “women and children first” Mr. Laroche separated from his family and went down with the ship.

Pearl Bailey and Louis Bellson, married 38 years

Pearl Bailey, a Black American actress and singer known for vaudeville and for the title role in the all-Black production of “Hello, Dolly!” was married to Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, who went by the stage name Louie Bellson. He was a composer, arranger, bandleader and jazz drummer.

Davis was booed by many of the Southern delegates when he appeared at the 1960 Democratic Convention because of his engagement to May Britt, a Swedish-born actress. Because of his close association with Frank Sinatra, who in turn supported the John Kennedy in the presidential race, Davis was asked to postpone his wedding until after the election. Unfortunately, as a performer constantly on the road, he spent little time with his wife and they divorced in 1968. As a side fact, it is said that the one love of Davis’ life was actress Kim Novak. This relationship caused a mob contract to be put on Davis’ life, thus ending the relationship. (allegedly, of course)

Betty and Barney Hill were from New Hampshire, and claimed to have been ….abducted and probed by aliens. I first saw this story on Mysteries at the Museum and just had search these two out. They

Betty and Barney Hill (Love the dog!)

seemed to be a perfectly ordinary couple, he a postal worker and she a social worker. Both were members of the NAACP. On their way back from a vacation in Southern Canada in 1961, they claimed their alien encounter. They wrote a book called “Interrupted Journey” and their experience was made into a movie starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons.

Diana Ross and Arne Naess, Jr.

Diana Ross and Arne Naess, Jr. married in 1986 is Switzerland. She and her Nordic mountain-climbing beau had two sons before they divorced in 1999. Shortly after, Naess died in a mountain-clilmbing accident. Ross has claimed that Naess was the “love of her life.”

After this refreshing walk through history, please be sure to visit other authors on the Loving Blog Hop and enter the rafflecopter to earn a chance to win some prizes. See below.